MR. J. W. LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that the new buildings of the Flitwick Board School, sanctioned by the Education Department and in part erected by the late Board, have now been stopped by the orders of the present Board for a period of 13 months; that the builder has presented a claim against the Board for £624 for breach of contract; and that a sum of £60 was surcharged by the auditor of the school accounts against certain members of the Board for illegal disbursements; whether the said sum has been paid by those members; and, if not, why the payment of the said sum has not been enforced by the Department; and what steps he proposes to take to prevent the present Board from reversing the policy of its predecessor by pulling down a building already begun, and throwing a large additional burden upon the ratepayers of the parish of Flitwick?
§ MR. ACLANDWith regard to this case, I can hardly add anything to the answers which I gave to the hon. Member on the 15th of February and the 19th of March last. The enlargement of the school is, I understand, now being carried out in accordance with the plans approved by the Department in March last. The question of surcharge rests with the 416 Local Government Board, and is not within the province of the Education Department. I am informed by the solicitors to Major Brooks, one of the members of the School Board, that the Board have applied to the Queen's Bench Division for a Rule for a mandamus, directing the Overseers to raise the sum in question, and I presume that the question at issue will be settled by the Courts of Law.